Here's another report predicting that consumer mobile data market - i.e. mobile messaging - is going to be big business. It's a little pie-in-the sky because it assumes that MMS will take off. That's a biiiig bet in my mind as after 2 months with my camera phone I've still have not been able to send an MMS to anyone I know. But still, it's interesting to see the figures they're talking about and the change from the term messaging to "consumer mobile data":

Ovum, the analyst and consulting company, expects the mobile consumer data traffic to reach US$71 billion in 2007 and it believes that operators must put their mobile consumer application strategy in place now to capture a share of the market.

According to Ovum's analysis, traffic and subscription revenues generated by consumers using their mobile phones to send data will account for 93 per cent of operators' data revenues this year and 78 per cent by 2007. These figures do not include the value of premium content and other transaction revenues, which will further boost operators' incomes.

"With the take-off of multimedia message services (MMS) and the increasing availability of Java phones, 2003 is the crunch year to prepare for consumer mobile applications," says Michele Mackenzie (left), senior analyst with Ovum. "Picture messaging and mobile gaming are just two of the key applications that will generate new growth and operators must ensure they are best positioned to offer consumers these services. This means investing in the technologies and tools, such as wireless middleware, which will enable operators to develop the platforms and services for consumer applications."

Ovum's forecasts also show that messaging, including SMS, MMS picture messaging, instant messaging and mobile e-mail, represents 85 per cent of total consumer mobile data spend. Information and entertainment respectively account for 10 per cent and 5 per cent.

This balance will shift slightly by 2007, but the uptake of messaging applications will still drive most of network traffic with 80 per cent of total consumer spend.